Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE) is a novel extraction technique for recovering compounds for use in functional foods and health promoting properties, from various sources. It’s an efficient, economical and promising method for resource recovery without loss of quality of the extracted products. It is often compared with supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SCCO₂). However, SWE is significantly more advantageous due to the lowest environmental impact, especially after overcoming the necessity of batch processing – which is exactly what we did.

The two greatest benefits of subcritical water extraction is the possibility to select which group of compounds are to be extracted with the enhanced yield and quality of thermally liable compounds.

A great overview of the beneficial aspects of SWE in comparison to other extraction methods is in two peer-reviewed articles by Essien et al. under the links provided (Essien et al., 2020,  Essien et al. 2021)

Our Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE) process allows us to provide the richest extracts of secondary metabolites of medicinal mushrooms on the market. This is possible because subcritical water extraction allows us to simultaneously extract polar and non-polar molecules within minutes, but more importantly, we preserve key thermally degraded compounds.

We are proud to be the few (perhaps the only) to provide information on cordycepin content – information that we have not found in the descriptions of products commonly available on the market. We presume that in most cases, where extracts are produced by Hot Water Extraction, the prolonged heating causes the heat-sensitive compounds (e.g. cordycepin, flavonoids) to break down.

For example, a typical daily dose of Cordyceps militaris SWE contains 1.8 mg of pure cordycepin and 10.2 mg of total phenols (standardized to gallic acid). We produce broad-spectrum 2:1 extracts that are 5 times more concentrated than the market standard of 10:1. We add just enough water to make our extract liquid enough for pipette dispensing.

We are in the process of fully characterizing our extracts from Hericium erinaceus, commonly known as Lion’s Mane. Where we are also focusing on providing analytical data on the content of key metabolites such as hericenones. It is, in our opinion, the most important information, as they are responsible for the induction of neuronal growth factor biosynthesis. Moreover, Lion’s Mane extracts containing hericenones have been shown to improve peripheral nerve regeneration, spatial memory and cognitive performance. Lion’s Mane extracts will be ready for shipment in the second half of 2024.